Shipments landing in the United States on or after July 24, 2026, will be subject to new duty rules. The flat 10% duty (section 122) currently applied to all postal shipments is going away. That flat rate existed because of two temporary policies: a global tariff set at 10%, and a carve-out that kept postal packages out of standard duty calculations. Commercial shipments lost that carve-out back in August of last year and have been paying standard, product-specific duty ever since. Postal shipments are simply catching up.
What’s changing
- Duty will now vary by product. Instead of a flat rate, each item is assessed its own duty based on its classification and country of origin — so a t-shirt and a piece of electronics could carry very different rates going forward. Certain goods may also pick up additional charges on top of the base duty — steel and aluminum products under Section 232, for instance.
- A replacement tariff is expected, but not yet finalized. A new Section 301 forced-labour tariff of 10–12.5%, depending on country of origin, is expected to replace the expiring Section 122 surcharge. This is not yet locked in and is subject to the USTR’s final action. Any charge using this projected rate will appear as provisional until formally adopted. Learn more about the Section 301 findings here.
- The prepayment threshold is increasing significantly. Orders under $2,500 USD shipped by post now require duty to be prepaid, up from the old $800 cutoff.
- Section 232 now applies to postal shipments too. Before July 24, postal shipments of steel, aluminum, copper, auto parts, and other Section 232-covered products only carried the 10% Section 122 surcharge. That changes July 24: postal shipments are treated the same as commercial ones, with Section 232 rates stacking on top of MFN rates and the expected Section 301 tariff. Some HS codes will see the maximum 200% tariff applied until an exemption agreement is reached.
Timing and what it means for your quotes
- Your quotes will update starting July 21, not July 24. Updated numbers will show up three days before the actual rule change takes effect. This is intentional: shipping quotes are usually generated before a package physically crosses the border, often several days in advance. Since anything quoted after July 21 is realistically headed toward a July 24 or later arrival, the new rates apply early so the numbers you see match what customs will actually charge.
- Commercial-only shippers are less affected, but not exempt. If your shipments move exclusively through commercial channels, you’ve already been paying product-specific duty rates, so this transition is less disruptive. You’ll still see the tariff figure itself update on the same July 21 date.
A couple of practical notes: duty won’t stay flat across your product line anymore, so it’s worth expecting variation by item. Quotes generated in the days surrounding July 24 are the ones most likely to shift as the new rates settle in. If avoiding that transition-period uncertainty matters to you, it may be worth holding off on shipments scheduled to land right around the changeover.
Have questions? Reach out to our support team (support@netparcel.com) any time; we’re happy to walk through how this affects your specific shipments!
